>Hi All,
>
>I have a client with 22 terminals that has been having serious speed issues, all along my application has been blamed, but following days of work we traced it to a server issue (copied data to a workstation and ran peer-2-peer and ran 6 workstations with no loss of performance).
>
>The "Hardware Consultant" is now saying that the issue is a compatibility issue with VFP and RAID 5, he has "proved" his point by putting a new server in without RAID 5 which is performing well.
>
>I am not convinced of his conclusion and I am not aware of any VFP with RAID5 issues, are any know?

I agree with Sergey and Thomas, VFP works well with a properly configured and functional RAID5 disk array. Steps I would take to diagnose this issue:

1. All RAID controllers include software that let you monitor the status and health of attached array(s). If one drive of the array has failed, the array will continue to function, but be "degraded" and performance of the remaining drives will be much reduced. Or, a drive may be failing, and returning a high rate of errors, which would also greatly reduce performance.

2. Check the server's Event Logs (primarily System and Application) for errors or warnings

3. Look at other processes running on the server that may be causing a high disk I/O load. A couple of simple examples:

a. An antivirus program may be configured to scan volume(s) on the array periodically. If you are doing your testing while an AV scan is running, performance will drop a lot.

b. Servers typically have backups that run on a schedule. If you are testing while a backup is running, performance will be slow.

The Task Manager and PerfMon utilities can be used to display a number of disk I/O related statistics that can be useful for determining processes that are disk hogs.

4. Check that the network connection is as expected. Servers these days should have at least one gigabit Ethernet adapter. 100MBit is not good enough, maximum theoretical throughput at that speed is only 12Mbytes/sec, which is far lower than what many single drives, let alone RAID5 arrays, can deliver. Check that the adapter is set to gigabit speed (1000Mbit), that the cable connecting it to the switch is Cat5e or better, and that the switch port is also gigabit. Sometimes switches (and/or Ethernet adapters) have coloured LEDs on each port that can tell you at a glance the current operational speed (e.g. orange for 10Mbit, green for 100Mbit, blue for 1000Mbit [gigabit]).

Ideally all computers and servers will be attached to a single switch, but with 22 workstations plus server(s), printer(s) etc. there may be two or more switches daisy-chained. With multiple switches you have to be careful in how they are interconnected in order to prevent bottlenecks.

If your "hardware consultant" hasn't already done these checks, his qualifications for diagnosing server problems are dubious.